Borough Assembly Meeting: Phase III MOU

**IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD REGARDING THE WEST SUSITNA ACCESS ROAD!**

On Tuesday, December 7, at 6 PM the Mat Su Borough Assembly will vote on the Phase III of predevelopment of the West Susitna Access Road.

With both a new Mayor and many new Assembly Members, public testimony is vital at this meeting. This item is included in the consent agenda and has the potential to be rushed though without any public input.

Testimony will only be heard from the public during the general public comment period near the beginning of the meeting. This is a VERY IMPORTANT time to testify. AIDEA has been unable to justify costs, payments, legal responsibility, and actual benefits to the borough in any of their meetings. We urge you to make your voice heard before the Borough is stuck with another AIDEA boondoggle. If the Borough does not support this project, AIDEA will have no local support for this work.

This are of Alaska is a rich, biologically diverse area and is heavily relied on for subsistence and personal use harvests. The area is home to some of the most critical Chinook and Sockeye salmon habitat in Interior Alaska, the Susitna Flats State Game Refuge, state designated Recreational Rivers, and traditional territory of the Ahtna and Dena’ina people who continue to use the area today.

Before this valuable area is turned into a private industrial thoroughfare – with an estimated mining truck traveling through on a private gravel road every eight minutes, Alaskans should have the opportunity to weigh in on the future of this area and who we want our tax dollars to benefit.

It's been more than a year since the Borough signed the Phase II MOU in which AIDEA said they would do public outreach. Almost none has been done. AIDEA did NOT follow though with any aspects of the Phase II MOU, why should we dedicate more time and money for a project they won't communicate the true purpose of or the true costs to the Borough, the land owners, business owners, lodge owners, and hunters and fishermen that rely on this area?

Please call your friends and have them testify as well!